Wider U.S. 95 Means Project Will Take Longer Four-Lane Road From Near Mica To Worley To Take 6 Years To Build

The expensive decision to build four lanes instead of two means improvements to U.S. Highway 95 from Mica Creek to Worley will take six years instead of three.

However, highway officials promise work on the project will start as planned next spring and that the first phase - improving the especially dangerous Mica-to-Bellgrove section - will be completed in two years.

“It’s the No. 1 priority as far as the state’s concerned,” said John McHugh, North Idaho representative on Idaho’s Board of Transportation.

“Four lanes is so much safer, in my mind, it would not be right to build a two-lane road,” he said. “It’s going to cost us a bit more money.”

The entire 19-mile stretch from Mica to Worley will cost $50 million to $60 million, according to Scott Stokes, Transportation Department district engineer in Coeur d’Alene.

The agency has budgeted $18 million for the first seven-mile stretch from Mica, at the northern end of the project, to the Fighting Creek bridge.

Northbound and southbound lanes will be divided from about five miles south of Mica all the way to Worley, where the highway will narrow to two lanes with a center turn lane.

The seven-mile stretch south of Mica is the most dangerous part of a nasty highway in the eyes of state Rep. Don Pischner, R-Coeur d’Alene.

When lawmakers got a letter recently from McHugh, explaining that the entire project would take six years to complete, Pischner was worried that work on the priority stretch would be delayed by environmental concerns and land acquisitions to the south.

Don’t let that happen, Pischner urged transportation officials at last week’s board meeting in Coeur d’Alene.

“I pleaded with them to expedite, keep their focus, and let’s get on with it. The people will be happy when they see the dirt turn,” Pischner said.

The lawmaker said he gives the department a “big pat on the back” for progress on the project given the extremely long planning process for highways. But he said he worries that if federal and tribal officials don’t concur on the whole project, work on the first phase might not start next year as planned.

Stokes, saying he couldn’t ask for better support from members of the Board of Transportation, said project planning has gone well.

“We’ve done everything possible to have a thorough process so we don’t suffer setbacks as we go along,” he said. “We’ve had a comprehensive public-awareness process, aggressive coordination with environmental agencies. We’ve had numerous meetings and extensive collaboration with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe.”

Public comment on the project often has echoed the words of Beverly Lingle, who commutes from Coeur d’Alene to Moscow twice a week. “This Worley-to-Mica project cannot happen too quickly,” she testified at a hearing in June. “This is terrific.”

But the project has its detractors. The biggest objection focuses on the southern end, where the highway is to be rerouted away from environmentally sensitive streams and wetlands. In the process, prime farmland would be covered with pavement or made far less valuable when split by the new highway.

Property owner Norma Peone noted that many of those who would be forced to sell for the proposed route are, like herself, members of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. Her family would lose at least 20 acres of land.

Peone said she has witnessed many fatal or near-fatal accidents due to the poor condition of the highway. “I want to see the project move forward quickly along the existing highway,” Peone said, but she vowed not to sell her land, which is a source of pride as well as income.

David Matheson, manager of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s gaming operations, said he is pleased by plans calling for the highway to be moved one-quarter mile from its current location in front of the tribe’s casino at Worley.

“We’ll have good signs and a better road,” Matheson said. “Without all the traffic and chip trucks going by, it’ll give us more of a resort atmosphere. If they came up with a new alignment, we’d strongly object.”

Another major point of discussion has been whether the highway should be routed around Worley.

Farmer Matt Drechsel said he would like it to bypass the town because the current plan - aimed at keeping the highway in town - would take out chunks of his family’s farmland.

Traffic going into Worley now must slow to 25 mph. Several people have spoken up for a safer, faster four-lane route to the west.

But that idea dismays Worley Mayor Charlene Waddell. Saying the 600 local residents can’t sustain Worley’s businesses, she said she fears the town would cease to exist if the highway doesn’t bring customers through town.

The Transportation Department plans two traffic lanes through town, Stokes said, but will add a turn lane.

“Three lanes will handle traffic for now,” he said. “You will still slow down through Worley.”

Staff writer Julie Titone can be reached at (208) 765-7126 or by e-mail at juliet@spokesman.com.